Because of the shape and rigidity of dried, elongated pasta noodles, such as uncooked spaghetti, it is difficult to determine the correct amount of such noodles necessary to produce a desired number of serving portions. The problem of judging portions is compounded by the fact that pasta expands in cooking. Obviously, dried pasta noodles cannot be gauged by an ordinary measuring cup because they will not fit compactly in such a cup. Package guides illustrating bundle diameters are helpful but not entirely satisfactory. Devices for measuring pasta by thrusting it through a fixed aperture in a flat surface have seldom reached the marketplace, probably because using such a device requires manual dexterity and may often result in breakage or spillage of the brittle dried pasta. If a user is unable to measure dried pasta accurately and prepares too much, waste results; preparing too little leads to inconvenience and delay as additional pasta is prepared.
The instant device, on the other hand, provides a simple, accurate, and sanitary means for measuring elongated dried pasta. Such pasta placed in this gauge may easily be measured with little handling or danger of spillage, simply by forming an aperture in the end of said gauge and tilting said gauge so that a predetermined amount of pasta falls through said aperture directly into a cooking pot.
Unlike other devices that can conveniently measure only one, two, or three serving portions of pasta, certain embodiments of the instant device can measure pasta of any of the lengths commonly manufactured commercially, whereas other devices can measure only one length of pasta.
Unlike other measuring devices for pasta, the instant device also serves as a sanitary storage container for pasta, to prevent spillage and waste and to protect from dirt and the vermin that infest cereal products. Such a container is desirable for all pasta, and particularly so for pasta marketed in fragile cellophane bags or for the increasing quantity of pasta made at home by hand or with simple machines. The instant device, therefore, in addition to preventing waste and inconvenience, promotes sanitation and order.